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Cort Gatliff on the Memories Lost to Web Security

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

This is the intersection of human failure and technological success. Yahoo security is doing exactly what it was designed to do; I’m not. It’s a helpless sort of frustration. My possessions are locked in a house, and I misplaced the key.

Threats on the internet are an ever-evolving nuisance. So, too, is the security designed to combat that nuisance. Mostly, procedures designed to keep us safe do exactly that.

But like a miracle medicine, strengthened security procedures can have undesirable side effects.

Cort Gatliff has witnessed the double-edged sword first-hand. A treasure trove of memories lies locked inside of a Yahoo! account he simply can't access, precisely because of the security measures he himself helped design, merely by answering questions about his own past.